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The Ceremonial Reception of Medieval Papal Legates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 April 2018

KRISTON R. RENNIE*
Affiliation:
School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia; e-mail: k.rennie@uq.edu.au

Abstract

This article examines the ceremonial reception of papal legates in the early Middle Ages. It offers a precise, distinctive and normative portrait of their ritualised practice well before the existence of written canonical rules and procedures. The customs, principles, gestures and symbols conditioning legatine activities in this historical era became necessary pre-conditions to political communication, interaction and exchange. Their expression and representation, it is argued, help to explain the manifestation of Roman authority in distant Christian provinces, its varied meaning to contemporaries and the formative rules of political governance and diplomacy.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

I am grateful to Pascal Montaubin for reading an earlier version of this article. I would also like to thank Emil Lauge Christensen for his invitation to present a paper on this subject at the Leeds International Medieval Congress in 2016. This article was written with the support of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

References

1 Annales Bertiniani, a. 876, MGH, SRG, 5, p. 128. For an account of the conciliar proceedings see MGH, Capit. 2, no. 279, pp. 347–53.

2 Annales Bertiniani, a. 876, p. 128.

3 Ibid. 128–9.

4 Ibid. 130–1.

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7 Ibid. 232. See also Buc, P., ‘Ritual and interpretation: the early medieval case’, Early Medieval Europe ix (2000), 183210 at p. 186Google Scholar, and Political ritual: medieval and modern interpretations’, in Goetz, H.-W. (ed.), Die Aktualität des Mittelalters, Bochum 2000, 255–72 at p. 266Google Scholar; Roosen, W., ‘Early modern diplomatic ceremonial: a systems approach’, Journal of Modern History lii (1980), 452–76 at p. 474CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Geertz, C., ‘Religion as a cultural system’, repr. in his The interpretation of cultures: selected essays, New York 1973, 112Google Scholar; and Leyser, K., Rule and conflict in an early medieval society: Ottonian Saxony, Oxford 1979Google Scholar.

8 Althoff, Spielregeln der Politik, 256.

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10 For example, Master Rufinus, Paucapalea, Johannes Teutonicus, Bernard of Pavia, Innocent iv, Huggucio, Bartholomeus Brixiensis, Bernard of Parma, Gregory ix, Hostiensis and William Durantis.

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12 Azo, Summa, Venice 1594, 4.50; Queller, Office of ambassador, 175–6.

13 Montaubin, ‘Un alter ego’, 394.

14 For a later record of French ceremonial entries see Cooper, R., ‘Legate's luxury: the entries of Cardinal Allesandro Farnese to Avignon and Carpentras, 1553’, in Russell, N. and Visentin, H. (eds), French ceremonial entries in the sixteenth century: event, image, text, Toronto 2007, 133–61Google Scholar.

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18 See Buc, P., ‘Rituel politique et imaginaire politique au haut moyen âge’, Revue historique ccciii (2001), 843–83 at pp. 854, 871–2Google Scholar, and Montaubin, P., ‘De Petits Papes en voyage: les légats en France et en Angleterre au xiiie siècle’, in Curveiller, S. (ed.), Se Déplacer du moyen âge à nos jours: actes du 6e colloque européen de Calais, 2006–2007, Calais 2009, 58–70 at p. 67Google Scholar. See also Twyman, S., Papal ceremonial at Rome in the twelfth century, London 2002Google Scholar, esp. introduction and chapter iii, and MacCormack, S., ‘Change and continuity in late antiquity: the ceremony of “adventus”’, Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte xxi (1972), 721–52Google Scholar.

19 See Schimmelpfennig, B., ‘Die Bedeutung Roms im päpstlichen Zeremoniell’, in Elze, R., Schimmelpfennig, B. and Schmugge, L. (eds), Rom in hohen Mittelalter: Studien zu den Romvorstellungen und zur Rompolitik vom 10. bis zum 12. Jahrhundert: Reinhard Elze zur Vollendung seines siebzigsten Lebensjahres gewidmet, Sigmaringen 1992, 47–61 at pp. 52–9Google Scholar.

20 Montaubin, P., ‘Qu'Advient-il du cérémonial papal hors de Rome (milieu du xie–milieu du xve siècle)’, in Hoffmann, G. and Gaillot, A. (eds), Rituels et transgressions de l'antiquité à nos jours, Amiens 2009, 109–19 at p. 110Google Scholar.

21 Andrieu, M., Les Ordines Romani du haut moyen âge, Louvain 1931–61Google Scholar, ii, ordo i, nos 18–29, pp. 72–6; cf. v, ordo l, nos 2–5, pp. 304–5; Schimmelpfennig, ‘Die Bedeutung Roms’, 59.

22 Montaubin, ‘De Petits Papes’, 67, 69.

23 Idem, ‘Pater urbis et orbis’, 43–4.

24 Twyman, Papal ceremonial, 85–7.

25 Montaubin, ‘Pater urbis et orbis’, 43; Althoff, Spielregeln der Politik, 230.

26 Montaubin, ‘Qu'Advient–il’, 111.

27 Althoff, Spielregeln der Politik, 257.

28 On this subject see ibid. 282–304.

29 Montaubin, ‘Qu'Advient-il’, 114.

30 Geertz, C., ‘Centers, kings, and charisma: reflections on the symbolics of power’, repr. in his Local knowledge: further essays in interpretive anthropology, New York 1983, 124Google Scholar; Buc, ‘Political ritual’, 259.

31 On this concept see Shils, E., ‘Charisma, order, and status’, American Sociological Review xxx (1965), 199213CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Centre and periphery’, in The logic of personal knowledge: essays presented to Michael Polanyi, London 1961, 117–30Google Scholar.

32 Geertz, ‘Centers, kings, and charisma’, 124.

33 Ibid. 125.

34 Shils, ‘Charisma, order, and status’, 207.

35 See Salminen, M.T., ‘In the pope's clothes: legatine representation and apostolic insignia in high medieval Europe’, in Hamesse, J. (ed.), Roma, magistra mundi: itineraria culturae medievalis: parvi flores: mélanges offerts au Père L. E. Boyle à l'occasion de son 75e anniversaire, Louvain-la-Neuve 1998, 339–54 at pp. 349–54Google Scholar.

36 As noted by Wasner, F.: ‘Fifteenth-century texts on the ceremonial of the papal “legatus a latere”’, Traditio xiv (1958), 295358 at p. 315CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 Salminen, ‘In the pope's clothes’, 349.

38 ‘omnibus insigniis apostolicis acsi papa procedat infulatus, equis apostolica sella Romano more ostro instratus’: Thangmar, Vita Bernwaldi, MGH, SS 4, c.28, p. 771. See also c.22, p. 769; Figueira, ‘“Legatus apostolice sedis”’, 567; Schmutz, ‘Foundations’, 78–82; Ruess, K., Die rechtliche Stellung des päpstlichen Legaten bis Bonifaz VIII, Paderborn 1912, 204Google Scholar.

39 Salminen, ‘In the pope's clothes’, 352; Figueira, ‘“Legatus apostolice sedis”’, 567.

40 ‘Et quia devotionem tuam, quae gentibus evangelizare cupit, cognoscimus, ex nostra munificentia superaddimus praefato tuo honori, palleo uti etiam Sabbato sancto Paschae in sanctae crucis Inventione et in protomartyris Stephani festivitate, caput quoque tuum mitra, quod est insigne Romanorum, insigniri’: PL cxliii. 703; Germania Pontificia, vi, no. 78 (24 April 1047), p. 55.

41 Germania Pontificia, vi, nos 15, 16, 27, 43, 45. On Ansgar's legation to Hamburg-Bremen see Adam of Bremen, Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum, MGH, SRG 2, c. xvi, pp. 22–3; cf. Vita Anskarii, c. 13, MGH, SRG 55, p. 35. For a recent argument against Gregory iv’s role see Knibbs, E., Ansgar, Rimbert and the forged foundations of Hamburg-Bremen, Aldershot 2011, 137–73Google Scholar.

42 For a reproduction of the illumination see S. Lewis, The art of Matthew Paris in the Chronica majora, Berkeley–London 1987, plate ix (Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, ms 16, fo. 107). There is another illumination of the legate with a plainer mitre at the same council in the Historia Anglorum: British Library, London, ms Royal 14, C.VII, fo. 126 (reproduction in Lewis, The art of Matthew Paris, p. 250, fig. 158).

43 Wiley, W. L., The formal French, Cambridge, Ma 1967, 164CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

44 ‘vestibus rubeis, palafredo albo, freno, calcaribus deauratis et similibus’: Hostiensis, Commentaria ad X 5.33.23; Wasner, ‘Fifteenth-century texts’, 306. Agostino Patrizi says as much in his ‘Ceremonie legati de latere’; cf. Wasner, ‘Fifteenth-century texts’, 330.

45 ‘Namque calceos rubros induebat, neque diversi coloris indumentis amiciebatur, quinimmo equi, sagulum et froena eodem inficiebantur veneno’: Raymund, Annales ecclesiastica, trans. Leo Attalius, a. 1213, para. 6; cf. Schmutz, ‘Foundations’, 79–80; Wasner, ‘Fifteenth-century texts’, 300–1.

46 ‘Idem Ericus cum Byzantii imperaret, ad reginam urbium a summo pontifico praesul, quem ipsi legatum indigitant. Pelagius nomine, Papae praerogativas omnes referens ablegatur. Namque calceos rubros induebat, neque diversi coloris indumentis amiciebatur, quinimo equi, sagulum et froena eodem inficiebantur veneno’: Baluze, Marca lib. v. c. 52 n. 9, cited in Ruess, Die rechtliche Stellung, 204; Figueira, ‘The canon law’, 384.

47 portare legationis insignia, incedere cum rubeis et signare populum … quum talia non nisi legato a latere destinato competant’: Berger, E., Les Registres d'Innocent IV (1243–54), Paris 1884–7, no. 4225Google Scholar; Ruess, Die rechtliche Stellung, 204.

48 adornatus insigniis personam nostrani quodam modo presentabis, de speciali gratia apostolica tibi auctoritate concedimus, quod eisdem insigniis infra predictum Ungarie regnum duntaxat et terras dominio eiusdem regis subiectas uti libere valeas’: Gay, J., Les Registres de Nicolas III, Paris 1898–1904, no. 312, p. 115Google Scholar.

49 ‘legatus de latere ex quo transit mare, non aliter; nec alius nisi sit speciali privilegio decoratus’: Hostiensis, Commentaria ad X 5.33.23; Montaubin, ‘De Petits Papes’, 66.

50 Monumenta Vaticana historiam regni Hungariae illustrantia (Acta legationis cardinalis gentilis: 1307–11), Budapest 1885, i/2, p. 3 (8 August 1307); Figueira, ‘The canon law’, 385.

51 ‘Quot species legatorum’: Hostiensis, Summa aurea, 318; Figueira, ‘The canon law’, 381; Salminen, ‘In the pope's clothes’, 350.

52 Figueira, ‘“Legatus apostolice sedis”’, 566. See also I. J. Sprey, ‘Papal legates in English politics, 1100–1272’, unpubl. PhD diss. University of Virginia 1998, 68.

53 ‘Dominicae vero crucis vexillum ante se faciant ubique deferri, nisi in urbe Romana, et ubicunque summus Pontifex praesens exstiterit, aut eius legatus, utens insigniis apostolicae dignitatis’: X 5.33.23. See also William Durantis, Speculum iuris (pars prima), Basel 1578, 3,5 (tit. De legato), p. 14; Montaubin, ‘De Petits Papes’, 65–6; cf. Schmutz, ‘Foundations’, 80.

54 Dubba, W. O., ‘The status of the patriarch of Constantinople after the Fourth Crusade’, in Beihammer, A. D., Parani, M. G. and Schabel, C. D. (eds), Diplomatics in the eastern Mediterranean, 1000–1500: aspects of cross-cultural communication, Leiden 2008, 63–4Google Scholar.

55 Figueira, ‘“Legatus apostolice sedis”’, 566.

56 See Andrieu, M., Le Pontifical Romain au moyen-âge, Vatican City 1940, iii. 627–9Google Scholar. See also Dykmans, M., Le Cérémonial papal: de la fin du moyen âge à la Renaissance, I: Le cérémonial papal du XIIIe siècle, Brussels–Rome 1977, 138–46Google Scholar.

57 Durantis's very first chapter de legato, in his Speculum iuris, likewise emphasises the legate's adventus: ‘recte autem faciet legatus, si, priusquam sibi decretam ingrediatur provinciam, edictum de suo adventu premittat, significans quando ingressurus sit’: Speculum iuris, i, 1 de legato, para. 7, p. 53; Montaubin, ‘De Petits Papes’, 67.

58 See Schimmelpfennig, B., Die Zeremonienbücher der Römischen Kurie im Mittelalter, Tübingen 1973, 62100Google Scholar.

59 ‘vadens ad legationem suam, cum exit territorium civitatis sive loci in quo papa cum cardinalibus residet, statim deponit cappam communem et recipit cappam rubeam de scarleto, et birretum rubeum, quibus in tota legatione sua utitur, et incipit signare. Cum autem de legatione sua revertitur, et intrat territorium supradictum, statim dimittit signare, et dimittit cappam rubeam et birretum rubeum, et assumit cappam communem et birretum tale sicut alii cardinales portant, et deinde intrat curiam per modum supra proxime descriptum. Ista vero, quoad assumptionem, necnon depositionem cappe rubei coloris, et birreti et crucis signationem, non habent locum quoad nuntios, sed tantum quoad legatos. Attende tamen quod crux non portatur ante legatum, nec ante nuntium’: Dykmans, M., Le Cérémonial papal: de la fin du moyen âge à la Renaissance, II: De Rome en Avignon ou le cérémonial de Jacques Stefaneschi, Brussels–Rome 1981, 500Google Scholar. See also Mabillon, J., Museum Italicum, Luteciae Parisiorum 1687–9, ii. 441–2Google Scholar, PL lxxviii.1272–3; cf. Wasner, F., ‘Legatus a latere: addenda varia’, Traditio xvi (1960), 405–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar at p. 410; and Figueira, ‘“Legatus apostolice sedis”’, 570–1.

60 See Dykmans, M., L’Œuvre de Patrizi Piccolomini ou le cérémonial papal de la première Renaissance, Vatican City 1980–2, ii. 157–9, 164Google Scholar, and Schimmelpfennig, Die Zeremonienbücher, 136–9. For a reproduction of these Latin texts see Wasner, ‘Fifteenth-century texts’, 305–6, cf. ‘Legatus a latere’, 410. They were first published in Venice in 1516 by Marcello Cristoforo as Rituum ecclesiasticorum sive sacrarum ceremoniarum S.S. Romanae Ecclesiae: libri tres non ante impressi. The most important texts in this regard appear under the rubrics ‘De creatione Legati Apostolici de Latere’, ‘De reditu novi Cardinalis cum galero, sive legati’ and ‘De novo Cardinali, vel Legato redeunte vaccante sede’.

61 Montaubin, ‘Qu'Advient-il’, 115.

62 For an example of this expectation, revealed here when it went unheeded, see Annales Bertiniani, a. 863, p. 62.

63 On the performative role of rituals see especially Koziol, Begging pardon and favour, and The dangers of polemic: is ritual still an interesting topic of historical study?’, Early Medieval Europe xi (2002), 367–88Google Scholar, and Geertz, ‘Religion as a cultural system’, 113–17.

64 Pope John viii, ep. lxxxiii, MGH, Epp. 7, p. 79.

65 Montaubin, ‘De Petits Papes’, 60–1.

66 Idem, ‘“Un alter ego”’, 397.

67 Pope Hadrian ii, ep. xxi, MGH, Epp. 6, p. 724.

68 Annales Bertiniani, a. 870, p. 177.

69 Buc, Dangers of ritual, 64.

70 Montaubin, ‘De Petits Papes’, 62.

71 Pope John viii, ep. viii, MGH, Epp. 7, p. 8.

72 Annales Bertiniani, a. 870, p. 177.

73 Hugh of Flavigny, Chronicon, MGH, SS 8, p. 415; Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, ed. J.-D. Mansi, Firenze 1759–98, xx. 484. Immediately following the Lyonnais council, Gregory vii confirmed the sentence of excommunication passed by Hugh of Die, and again at his 1080 Lent synod, validating the provost (Manasses) and canon (Bruno) of Reims as the initial accusers (Reg. vii. 20).

74 ‘Sed quia premittendo “Romanis” continuo subiungitis “non ultramontanis”, ostenditis vos tantum eos velle Romanos habere legatos, qui vel Rome nati vel in Romana ecclesia a parvulo edocati vel in eadem sint aliqua dignitati promoti’: Reg. vi. 2; cf. Ott, J. S., ‘“Reims and Rome are equals”: Archbishop Manasses i (c. 1069–80), Pope Gregory vii, and the fortunes of historical exceptionalism’, in Danielson, S. and Gatti, E. A. (eds), Envisioning the bishop: images and the episcopacy in the Middle Ages, Turnhout 2014, 275–302 at p. 294Google Scholar.

75 Reg. vi, 2; cf. Meyer, O., ‘Reims und Rom unter Gregory vii.’, Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung, kanonistische Abteilung xxviii (1939), 418–52 at pp. 431–2Google Scholar.

76 Reg. vi, 2.

77 Fulcoii Belvacensis utriusque (De nuptiis Christi et Ecclesiae libri septem), ed. Rousseau, M. I. J., Washington, DC 1960, 37Google Scholar; for translation and analysis see Ott, ‘“Reims and Rome are equals”’, 286–7; cf. Flodoard of Reims, Historia Remensis Ecclesiae, MGH, SS 36, 1.1, pp. 62–3.

78 Ott, ‘“Reims and Rome are equals”’, 287.

79 Manasses of Reims, RHGF xiv. 782ff. See also Rennie, K. R., Law and practice in the age of reform: the legatine work of Hugh of Die (1073–1106), Turnhout 2010, 137ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar. As justification for his absence, Manasses claimed personal safety and location of the council outside the kingdom of France.

80 Gratian, Decretum, 1, 21, 2; D. 94, c.2; Durandus, Speculum legatorum, 33. See also Ruess, Die rechtliche Stellung, 185.

81 The epistolae vagantes of Pope Gregory VII, trans. Cowdrey, H. E. J., Oxford 1972, no. 52, pp. 126–7Google Scholar. Italics mine.

82 Pope Urban ii, ep. xlix, RHGF xiv.720; PL cli.449–50.

83 Farmer, S., Communities of Saint Martin: legend and ritual in medieval Tours, Ithaca, NY–London 1991, 44 n. 21Google Scholar.

84 Narratio controversiae, RHGF xii. 459; Farmer, Communities of Saint Martin, 45.

85 See Koziol, Begging pardon and favor, 305; Twyman, Papal ceremonial, 17.

86 Buc, ‘Political ritual’, 270.

87 Narratio controversiae, 461.

88 On this idea see Hofmann, H., Repräsentation: Studien zur Wort- und Begriffsgeschichte von der Antike bis ins 19. Jahrhunderts, Berlin 1974, 50Google Scholar.

89 See, for example, Anselm of Lucca, Collectio canonum, ed. F. Thaner, Innsbruck 1906; repr. Aalen 1965, ii. 47, p. 97; Decretum Gratiani, D.3 c.2; cf. Wojtowytsch, M., Papsttum und Konzile von den Anfängen bis zu Leo I. (440–461), Stuttgart 1981, 28Google Scholar.

90 Somerville, R., ‘Cardinal Stephen of St Grisogono: some remarks on legates and legatine councils in the eleventh century’, in Pennington, K. and Somerville, R. (eds), Law, Church and society: essays in honor of Stephan Kuttner, Philadelphia 1977, 157–66 at p. 157Google Scholar. See also Barion, H., Das fränkisch-deutsche Synodalrecht des Frühmittelalters, Bonn–Cologne 1931, 350–97Google Scholar.

91 See Barion, Das fränkisch-deutsche Synodalrecht, 55–61.

92 See Schneider, H., Die Konzilsordines des Früh- und Hochmittelalters, Hanover 1996Google Scholar, ordo 2, pp. 142–204.

93 Urban ii, ep. 49, RHGF xiv.720; PL cli.449.

94 Farmer, Communities of Saint Martin, 46.